Our vision
A sustainable future can only be shaped for, with, and by the people who live on site.
At DKB FOUNDATION, we believe in the enormous potential of the countryside as a driver of social development. Development starts with the people. It is therefore our goal to enable as many people as possible to participate in society and to turn them into shapers.
For us, rural areas are a land of opportunity and a place where we can test how the future and the community can be shaped. To this end, we focus on the areas of inclusion, sustainability and the promotion of cultural projects in rural areas. For us, rural areas are full of opportunities in which solutions to major issues can be envisioned. For us, the future is inclusive and characterized by participation.
Our goal:
We provide spaces in which sustainable community development can take place together with all local people. We provide impulses so that people fill rural area with their sustainable ideas for residing, working, and living. We allow our impact to be measured and ourselves to be measured by it. And we invite others to learn from us and transfer these exemplary models to new places. In this way, we shape social models on a small scale for a sustainable future for all.
Our mission
We offer rural spaces for sustainable ideas.
We make it possible for people to experience what sustainable management and social commitment look like in rural areas. As an initiator, we actively involve local people – in and around our rural “spaces”: at our foundation sites and in our foundation work.
We make inclusion real and interesting. We want to show the value of diversity to rural areas and how creatively participation can be shaped for people with different needs.
We track down people’s potential. We help make them visible and strengthen them. Everyone should be able to contribute their special skills and help shape the community. To this end, we network rural actors and promote mutually reinforcing cooperation.
Good ideas emerge from the work in our subsidiaries and fields of activity. Good ideas become projects, projects become models, models in turn become living reality on our properties to serve as an example to others.
Commitment in four central areas of activity
Inclusion
We reduce prejudices against people with disabilities by running an inclusion company in the primary labour market and conducting educational projects on inclusion. We integrate inclusion in all our projects by trying to break down barriers, inviting people with disabilities to join us, and thus reaching as many people as possible. The result: mutual appreciation, a sense of shared responsibility, and the experience of self-reliance.
Education for sustainable development
We raise people’s awareness of the need to use the resources of their environment and surroundings sparingly – and in doing so draw attention to pressing issues of our time: How can we ensure food security for everyone, what can sustainable energy supply look like, and how can we achieve greater sustainability with our decisions and actions? We want to promote the skills of children, young people, and adults that are needed to answer these questions. This approach goes far beyond mere knowledge transfer and focuses on the development of self-reliance and problem-solving skills. We make our own spaces available for this purpose in an exemplary manner.
Cultural education and promotion of young talent
Culture is a central pillar of rural development. It brings people together and allows them to become creators, it conveys joie de vivre, and promotes exchange and community. Through cultural education, we teach people skills and methods to critically and creatively engage with their own identity and their living environment. And we show methods of communicating, contributing, and expressing oneself. That’s why we support and initiate regional cultural projects on and around our properties and promote young artists.
Cultural heritage
We turn our properties into places to be experienced and invite visitors to engage with our rich cultural and natural heritage. We research, collect, and care for these treasures. We prepare them and make their facets and their significance tangible for people. For us, communicating our historical roots is an important basis for developing ideas for the future.
